Chapter 17
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Killing Fang WeiTong wasn’t able to help OuYang MingYue relax much.

In order to not let the OuYang family detect anything, she had used the dowry that had been left to her by the original’s mother and put it in the name of a series of confidants. After meeting Fang WeiTong she had successfully relied on the Fang family and turned it into a successful business. Now that the Fang family’s enterprises had been sealed shut, her money was also gone and so overnight she became penniless.

If it was in the past she could just let it go. After all the OuYang family would give her ten liangevery month and it was still enough to survive. However in order to increase her power and influence, she had pulled a lot of talented people to her side, and she had also adopted over a hundred orphans and was training them at a separate manor. All of these needed enormous funding to maintain. If the funding dried up, then all of the painstaking efforts she had made up until this point would be for nought.

What could she do now? She felt head-splittingly panicked and in a matter of days became frail and exhausted looking. Luckily other than Fang WeiTong, she still had a couple of backup men. If she added them together and squeezed them a bit, then it was enough to last a little bit of time. However it wasn’t a long-term plan.

“My lady, this month’s coal has all been used up and we need to buy some more. Just then the housekeeper brought over a message that the money in the manor has all been used up. Every day the children can only eat a little bit of porridge and are wailing because they are so hungry. He said that you need to think of a solution quickly.” A maid knelt down in the hall and reported.

OuYang MingYue leaned against the couch and rubbed her temple. Her other hand tapped incessantly on the table and she said with an impatient expression, “So hungry they are wailing? Hn, back then they were all orphans begging on the street. Don’t even talk about a bowl of porridge a day, they would go for three to five days without even being able to eat a cold mantou.Now they all think they can be rich and picky.” After thinking for a while, she waved her hand. “Tell him, I will quickly send a few silver taels over and tell him to maintain for a few more days. Don’t allow the underlings to become rebellious. I have fifty taels here, you can use it to buy coal. Don’t worry I will think of a way to get out of this predicament. Go quickly and come back quickly.”

The maid obeyed and went out in the heavy snow. A elderly matron came in and said happily, “My lady, Young Master Bai has sent another 500 silver taels cheque to you and told you not to panic. He said he will think of a way to take you back to the Imperial City quickly.”

Bai Lian had no clue about OuYang MingYue and Fang WeiTong’s relationship. He only thought that she was being bullied by her stepmother and was unable to remain in the OuYang family. His pity  was roused and he sent over all of the private funds that he had. Although the Bai family was very esteemed however they were not extremely wealthy, 500 taels was the limit of what he had.

OuYang MingYue snorted and threw the cheque into her draw. She laughed coldly and said, “What is 500 taels. It’s not enough for one days expense for me! Such a famous and esteemed family, who would have thought they were so poor. Aren’t they scared of being laughed at by outsiders!” After speaking she ground her teeth and made up her mind that no matter what she would rise again from the ashes.

So the Imperial Court wanted to know her formula for gunpowder? Fine, she would give it to them. But of course she wouldn’t let them know about her existence. Until she was really able to cement her power, she wouldn’t put herself in harm’s way.

Not only did she have the formula for gunpowder but also the blueprints for hand grenades and guns etc. If she sold it it would be worth a lot of money and she would be able to climb up easily. Even if the people she revealed it to developed ulterior motives then what of it? She could slowly trap and control them, use their resources to hide and cover herself. And then once her footing was stable, who knew who would be the one to destroy the other person first? After thinking this far, she changed to male clothing and went to Yong Wu Manor despite the heavy snow.

“You want to meet the Regent?” WanQi Yan raised his eyebrow, very surprised at OuYang MingYue’s request.

The little master said this person had wild ambitions, turns out he really wasn’t wrong.

“That’s right. This lowly person has two gifts he would like to give his Lordship, they are even more precious than the earth model.” In order to prevent the Yong Wu Marquis blocking her, OuYang MingYue added this sentence.

Speaking of the earth model, she still felt very wronged to this day. She originally thought the thing would come in handy but didn’t expect that it wasn’t able to move the Young Wu Marquis the slightest. She could only blame that that youth had come at an inopportune time, suppressing her at every turn and transformed her exciting military strategy into a joke. Under the youth’s tactics, she had turned into a laughing stock. It was infuriating!

WanQi Yan thought for a while then nodded his head. He said “wait a moment” and returned to his chambers to change. He changed his clothing from the ordinary gray robe he was wearing and with the help of a maid, changed into a regal and bright royal purple robe.

After the matter with the private silver, everything had been quiet in the Imperial City. So he hadn’t gone to the Regent’s Manor for over ten days and hadn’t seen the young master in all that time. Just thinking about that person’s sexy and straightforward love talk made his fingers tremble and his face go red. Just like the saying “not seeing for one day is like three seasons”, he felt as though he hadn’t seen the young master for thirty seasons. No wonder his heart felt so uncomfortable. 

After checking he was dressed neatly, he hid the love in his eyes and went with OuYang MingYue together to meet the Regent.

The two people went to the Regent’s Manor and were quickly let into the front courtyard. They were pointed to a small pavilion beside a lake under the floating snowflakes and told, “The Regent and the young master are enjoying the snow in the pavilion. Marquis this way please”

WanQi Yan nodded and walked over slowly with OuYang MingYue.

OuYang MingYue didn’t come empty handed. She was holding onto a wooden box and from her right wrist hung an iron cage. The cage was wrapped in thick wool to prevent the thing inside being frozen.

The lakeside pavilion was a closed pavilion, only a small door had been opened. All the other sides were surrounded by crystal clear class. Embedded in the golden wood, it looked very elegant. Although snow was flying outside and water had been turned into ice, inside there were several strong stoves blazing. Even though two small windows had been left ajar, however inside it wasn’t cold at all.

At the time the Regent was sitting across from the youth. In between them was a red and hot small heat stove. The two people’s heads were pressed closely as they whispered secret things to each other. It was unknown what the youth said but the Regent threw back his head and laughed heartily. Then he kissed the youth’s forehead a few times. The crispness of the kissing sounds made it very awkward for the two people coming in. They didn’t know whether they should go in or retreat.

Luckily WanQi Yan had seen an even more flagrant scene before so was able to recover quickly. He walked over and bowed respectfully. In his heart he couldn’t help feeling disappointed. OuYang MingYue was from the future, what kind of scene hadn’t she seen before? She quickly wiped the shock from her face and thought darkly to herself: no wonder the Regent isn’t interested in me. Turns out he’s gay, so disgusting!

Because the youth’s back was to the door, she could only see a fall of dark hair and didn’t realize this was the little master that had made her lose so much face. So when the two people turned to look at them, the shock and humiliation that appeared in her eyes was clear for everyone to see. Realizing that she was embarrassing herself, she hurried to raised her clasped hands and smile beautifically.

Zhou YunSheng’s heart held several evil notions but he didn’t show it on his face. He only dispassionately gazed at the people who had come in for several beats. He looked as though he wasn’t much interested. After he took off his shoes and socks and placed his hair of jade-like small feat onto the heater to warm them. A pure yin body was like this, it was the most hard to bear in winter. His whole body would feel cold and the ice would seep into his bones. Of course his need for yang energy would increase further. Luckily his lover had an abundance of yang energy and even if he sucked him clean every night, the next day he would rise up again like a dragon or tiger. It was no problem to maintain him.

Thinking of the hot and spicy scenes from the night before, his heart trembled slightly. Zhou YunSheng gazed at his lover with a slightly pink face.

Zhao Xuan was greeting WanQi Yan but was tempted by his dewy gaze. His soul felt as though it had suddenly flown away. He completely forgot what he was supposed to say next and he wrapped his hands and began to massage that pair of icy cold feet, radiating love and spoiling feelings.

“Why are your feet so cold? It’s clear that you didn’t eat enough last night.” Zhao Xuan knit his brow, thinking even doing it three times wasn’t enough, he needed to feed him more every day. Thinking about this, his mood immediately flew up and he really wanted to take this person to the bedroom right away.

Zhou YunSheng was very familiar with his lover. He only needed to raise an eyebrow for the other person to know what he was thinking. He hurried to step on his chest with his foot, his eyes full of warning. Zhao Xuan didn’t dare rebel so he could only suppress the desire in his heart and wrapped the naked foot inside his clothing so that there wasn’t anything preventing it from coming in contact with his hot chest.

Wan QiYan was used to the interactions between the Regent and the young master so his expression didn’t change. However OuYang MingYue’s frown grew and grew. She felt very disgusted by these two people’s public display of affection.

When Wan QiYan indicated to her, she sat down on a seat furthest away from these two people. She raised her clasped hands and said, “This humble civilian came to meet his Lordship in the hopes of striking two deals with his Lordship. In order to express my sincerity, I specially brought a gift.” After speaking she placed the wool-wrapped cage on the table to allow the others to examine it.

From the cage came movement and sounds. Zhao Xuan smiled a smile that didn’t reach his eyes and said, “Marquis Yong Wu, help this Regent have a look at what it is.”

WanQi Yan unwrapped the wool and saw that inside was a snowy white fox. The length was about ten cun, and its tail was very large. Because it was feeling panicked, it was scuttling about in an anxious manner, looking everywhere with its eyes. From its top to its toe there wasn’t a single strand of discolored fur, it was extremely pure white. It had a pair of amber eyes that was bright and dewy. It used its small paw to incessantly claw at the cage door, and from it’s mouth it made begging noises. The appearance was  very pitiful.

WanQi Yan was not able to resist the weak calls of this cute animal. His cold face immediately softened. This snow fox had a pair of eyes very much like the young master and made his heart move strangely.

Zhao Xuan stared at it for a few moments and also felt a bit strange.

The sleepiness disappeared from Zhou YunSheng’s eyes. When he saw his lover staring at the snow fox in the cage he used his foot to kick him viciously. He laughed coldly and said, “It’s just a poor substitute. Do you think all snow foxes in the world can replace Yu Li?”

“Replying to this young master, this humble servant doesn’t know whether this snow fox is Yu Li or not. That’s why I brought it over for his Lordship to confirm. This servant knows that Yu Li was owned by Miss OuYang for some time. So I specifically kept an eye on the OuYang Manor and found this snow fox hiding and circling the premises so I caught him and brought him here. If he isn’t Yu Li, then it’s this servant’s mistake. If he is Yu Li, then being able to be of assistance to the Regent is this humble servant’s fortune.” OuYang MingYue showed a face full of respect and humility, however inside she was laughing coldly.

She had seen with her own eyes how much the Regent loved and spoiled that bastard animal. Now that she saw this youth reacting so strongly to the snow fox, she guessed that he was worried that his affection was going to be stolen away by it? Clearly he was someone that had talent and ability, but he had fallen to the state of competing with a bastard animal. How pitiful.

Zhou YunSheng opened the cage and said, “The Regent loves Yu Li and Yu Li also loves the Regent to the bottom of his heart. If he really his Yu Li then when he sees the Regent he should immediately run into his arms, he wouldn’t run away. Whether he is real or fake, one test is enough to tell.” He looked down at the snow fox who was staring at him in a daze, his eyes full of obedience.

The snow fox received the signal from its big king. He immediately jumped up and raced towards the window, running towards a menagerie in the middle of the Manor.

After hearing the Regent had lost his pet, there were countless people who came to gift snow foxes. Zhou YunSheng pitied his kinsman and so made a warm abode for them to live in. After springtime and when it got warmer, he would release them back into the wild. Within them there were a few snow foxes that had already achieved spiritual awareness and they refused to leave. They cried and begged to serve their big king, no matter what they wouldn’t leave.

OuYang MingYue had already trained this snow fox until it was extremely obedient. Without her command it should definitely not make any sudden moves. She didn’t expect that it would suddenly disappear into the snow without a trace. Her face went red and she felt extremely awkward. She didn’t think that this gift not only would not please the Regent but would make things more difficult for herself. Luckily she had kept her words vague and he shouldn’t get angry with her.

The little fox’s words was admitting his love for Zhao Xuan. Zhao Xuan felt like he had eaten a whole jar of honey, his heart was so sweet it felt numb.

He lifted the little fox’s tender white foot and laughed in a satisfied manner. When he saw OuYang MingYue’s face immediately darken he asked her, “You caught this fox around the OuYang Manor? Who in the Imperial City doesn’t know that when I found Li’Er, he had been tortured by OuYang MingYue that poisonous woman. Do you think it’s likely that he would run away from this Regent and return to OuYang MingYue? Who knows where you found this bastard from and wanted to use him to pretend to be this Regent’s beloved. Do you think this Regent is easy to fool? It seems that you’re not an honest person. Someone come, send away the guest.”

OuYang MingYue’s face irritated him. No matter how much this woman disguised herself there was still obvious clues. And plus she had even given herself an almost identical name, did she think other people were idiots? He was really surprised that other than himself and the little fox, was there really nobody that could see through her disguise? Were other people blind? And her skin was so thick. She really thought Yu Li would want to return to her and spend his time circling her room?

Just based on this one sentence, he wanted to violently snap her neck.

OuYang MingYue knew that she had made a big mistake.

She had made enquiries and knew that although many people had brought snow foxes to the manor, however none of them looked exactly the same as Yu Li. Either their size wasn’t the same, or the color of their eyes wasn’t right. Although the Regent had accepted all of these gifts however he never kept any of them by his side. So it was clear none of them took his fancy.

Since she was the snow fox’s previous owner she was very familiar with his appearance. That’s how she was able to purchase another one by spending a high price. She had even spent a lot of time to painstakingly train him. She trained him over and over again to copy the scene where Yu Li and the Regent had met for the first time. She ensured that when she saw him he would run over and jump on him right away, so as to make the Regent overjoyed.

But right now the youth and only just spoken and the bastard actually ran away! OuYang MingYue’s heart was extremely angered however she knew that she couldn’t explain her way out of it. She could only kneel down to admit her pretense and beg the Regent for his forgiveness. She kowtowed so hard that she cut her forehead but still the Regent didn’t speak. He only sat there and looked at WanQi Yan.

WanQi Yan, who had become more close to her recently, was staring fixedly at the table as though there was something fascinating written there. He completely ignored her. OuYang MingYue felt helpless. So she opened her wooden box and said, “Please wait your Lordship, this humble servant has two things to show you. If his Lordship isn’t satisfied then it’s not too late to punish me.” Since things had gotten to this point she was also forced into a corner. If she knew it would get to this she wouldn’t have tried the tactic earlier.

Finally she took it out. The other three people glanced at the contents with a casual glance. They saw that placed on a golden cloth was two objects. One was a small paper bag that was about one cun long, and the other was a strange type of metal instrument.

WanQi Yan and Zhao Xuan didn’t know what this instrument was but Zhou YunSheng knew straight away. It was a hand pistol. The power couldn’t compare to a modern gun, however in this day and age it would be the king of weapons. OuYang MingYue was a killer and knew a lot about weapons. Her being able to construct a gun wouldn’t be too hard.

She had brought these two things to the door so it seems like she was running out of options. This gave the fox an idea.

Zhou YunSheng smiled. He picked up the objects and played with them, appearing very curious.

“The objects are dangerous, young master should take care.” OuYang MingYue secretly felt very proud and arrogant and snatched the gun back. She aimed it towards the open window.

There was an ear-piercing banging noise. Then a sparrow fell from the sky, landing in the snow in a puddle of red blood.

“This object is called a burst gun, it can kill a live animal a hundred metres away. If it was used on the battlefield, the effect would be untold. Does the Regent want to try?”

OuYang MingYue placed a fresh bullet into the pistol and offered it up respectfully with both hands. If the Regent was really what people said he was, someone who had a sharp eye and a wild ambition, then he definitely wouldn’t be able to withstand the temptation of a gun. With this, the Tian Yuan Country could easily conquer all of the small and large countries around them. They would have nothing more to fear.

And the things she possessed was not even just these two things. If the Regent saw her worth and placed importance on her, she was confident that she would quickly climb up. Or if these two people wanted to get rid of her, she would just kill them.

At this time her eyes filled with killing intent but she quickly retracted it.

She was a narrow-minded person and was also someone that couldn’t forgive a grudge. Since the Regent had humiliated her more than once, she had long developed a killing intent towards him. Other people may hold the Regent high up on a pedestal, thinking he was untouchable, but to her she was just human. One bullet could take care of him.

Zhou YunSheng had extremely perceptive senses. He immediately felt killing intent and his eyes when looking at OuYang MingYue darkened. Zhao Xuan took the gun and under OuYang MingYue’s tutelage learned to aim it. He aimed it at the window for a few moments then brought it back and suddenly aimed at his own left hand. 

“Your Lordship no!” OuYang MingYue felt angered to death by these stupid ancient people. “The power of the gun is very large. Even a hundred metres away it can pierce the bone. If the Regent aims at himself at this close distance, it would definitely turn your palm into a fleshy pulp. Your Lordship musn’t do it!”

Just then WanQi Yan had also witnessed the power of the gun so naturally he didn’t doubt OuYang MingYue’s words. He stood up hurriedly to prevent it. Only Zhou YunSheng lay bonelessly on his seat. His two white feet kneaded his lover’s chest. He even clamped his toes around his nipples, playing with him uncaringly.

Zhao Xuan felt like his chest was on fire. But there were other people present preventing him from releasing him desire. So why would he listen to their words? Not even moving the gun back an inch he pressed the trigger.

“Peng!” There was a loud sound. But the expected scene of flesh being turned to blood and pulp didn’t appear. Instead the Regent opened his palm and placed a bent and distorted looking golden bullet on the table. He said laughingly, “This is your so-called “greater power”? It couldn’t even hurt this Regent’s flesh the slightest.”

After dual cultivating with Yu Li, he found out that the inner power inside him was growing exponentially every day. In just a few short months he had already broken through zhenjing {T/N: Cultivation level I think}, and now possessed a body that bullets couldn’t penetrate. He had a strong feeling that as long as he wanted to, he could destroy this earth.

No matter if it was OuYang MingYue or WanQi Yan, or even Zhao ZongZheng. In his eyes they were just like mosquitos.

In this world only the little fox had the right to hurt him and to take his life.

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